Address to the Woodlark
O stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay,Nor quit for me the trembling spray,A hapless lover courts thy lay,Thy soothing, fond complaining.Again, again that tender part,That I may catch thy melting art;For surely that wad touch her heartWha kills me wi’ disdaining.Say, was thy little mate unkind,And heard thee as the careless wind?Oh, nocht but love and sorrow join’d,Sic notes o’ woe could wauken!Thou tells o’ never-ending care;O’speechless grief, and dark despair:For pity’s sake, sweet bird, nae mair!Or my poor heart is broken.
Words in this poem
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- unkind a.
- Having no race or kindred; childless. [See Kin kindred.]
- speechless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Address to the Woodlark is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Project Gutenberg ebook #1279; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Burns, Address to the Woodlark, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/address-to-the-woodlark.html, id L03426.
Form and metre
Address to the Woodlark is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AAABCCCBDD--EEE- stayA · sprayA · layA · complainingB · partC · artC · heartC · disdainingB · unkindD · windD · join'd · wauken · careE · despairE · mairE · broken
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nor quit for me the trembling spray, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A hapless lover courts thy lay, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Thy soothing, fond complaining. | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Again, again that tender part, | 8 | ˘/˘/·/˘· |
| That I may catch thy melting art; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For surely that wad touch her heart | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Wha kills me wi’ disdaining. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Say, was thy little mate unkind, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And heard thee as the careless wind? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Oh, nocht but love and sorrow join’d, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Sic notes o’ woe could wauken! | 7 | ······· |
| Thou tells o’ never-ending care; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| O’speechless grief, and dark despair: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| For pity’s sake, sweet bird, nae mair! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or my poor heart is broken. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.